The State Fair and a new blog address...

As you can probably tell from the blog title, we went to the state fair this last week. I am one of those weirdos who LOVES the fair. I've been every year of my life and it's just one of those traditions that I don't see myself breaking any time soon... even when I'm hugely pregnant. Walking around the state fair when you're about-to-pop-pregnant is probably not the smartest idea in the world and definitely not super fun, but we still had a good time. :-)

Donovan, Kaya, & I went to the fair on Monday at about 12:30 and stayed for about 5 hours. Kaya's favorite part of the fair used to be the animals, but we've now started a new addiction... RIDES! She LOVES rides! We started off with one of the spinning rides. It was one where there are about 6 or 7 "bowls" (sorry, I can't think of a better word) attached to spider arms that spin while going up and down. Each of the "bowls" spins individually as well. Being that this was her first ride ever and that the "bowls" got pretty high, I wasn't sure how she'd react, but she REALLY wanted to try. So, Kaya & Donovan squished themselves (I say squished because Donovan's 6'4" and all legs...it was a pretty funny sight) into one of the bowls and off they went. Kaya's initial reaction was to freak out and grab Daddy's leg, but after about 2 seconds of that she was laughing histerically and thinking it was the best ride in the world. It was pretty funny to see her go from sheer terror to pure bliss in the matter of about 2 seconds. I think she's going to be a thrill seeker when she gets older -we're going to have our hands full! (I would attach a picture, but the ride was going too fast for me to get any good ones.)

After the first ride, we made our way over to the animals. Kaya loves the animals, but after a couple of goats tried to attack us in the petting zoo, she decided that she only like the small "cute" animals. Soooo, we looked around at a lot of different animals but didn't do much petting this year. Kaya's favorite animals of the day were the baby pigs. She also got to learn how to milk a cow and ride a horse. I didn't get any pictures of the cow-milking, but I got a super high quality ;-) cell phone pic of the horse ride. (This was the first year that she didn't want me to walk next to her horse.)

After we were done looking at the animals, Kaya got her first bumper car ride. This was, by far, her favorite part of the fair. She rode twice all by herself and had a great time speeding around running into people (after she figured out how to do something other than go in circles). After that, we decided our day with Kaya at the fair was done and came home. Donovan & I went back for a while that evening, but spent most of the time sitting... Boy, giant pregnant ladies aren't very much fun, are we? We enjoyed ourselves though and ended our evening with some gelato under the fireworks. All in all, it was a very fun (and exhausting) day.

On another note - I'll be changing the title and address of the blog pretty soon, so keep your eyes open for that!

And the name is...

We finally decided on a name...

Oliver William Herring

We like it and we hope you do too. If you don't, that's okay - just don't tell me. :-)

(I know - this post is way too short. I'll try to post again soon with other news.)

Boys, boys, boys

So, I was right... It's definitely a boy! I can't get a good scanned picture, but I have the proof if anyone wants to see it. :-)

EDIT: Here's the proof...

And... Yesterday, my wonderful friends threw me a beautiful (and yummy) shower and generously contributed to a group gift which included a stroller, car seat, car seat bases, swing, and a TON more. Thank you all SOOOO MUCH! I will see what pictures Kaya took yesterday and try to get some of those uploaded tonight. :-)

On another note, Kaya has been talking a lot about husbands lately... She's really trying to understand who she's allowed to marry and who she's not. :-) For a very long time, Kaya has been saying that she wants to marry her friend Tommy when she grows up. This has made Donovan & I very happy. We LOVE Tommy and his parents, so this would be ideal. But then, things changed... Tommy & Kaya were both at a birthday party and were asked if they were brother and sister. Well, Kaya REALLY like this idea and decided that Tommy would be a great brother. I told her that if Tommy was her brother, she couldn't marry him and she said, "Okay, well I'll just marry someone else!" I tried to talk her out of that one... I like Tommy... There was no talking her out of it though. She really wanted Tommy to be her brother. Not wanting to let go of the husband idea (she inherited her mommy's love of boys), she started looking around at her prospects. In the last week or so, I think that she's said that she wants to marry every boy in her Sunday school class at least once, but none of them ever stuck. So, in trying to understand the boundaries of marriage, Kaya asked me this on Saturday, "So, if our baby is a boy, when he grows up and I grow up, can I marry him?" Back to marrying brothers... I explained that one again and she named a few more boys that she might want to marry. Not Tommy though - he's still her brother.

Well, then came Sunday. Tommy's mom, Kristina, was one of the gracious hosts of the baby shower, so Kaya got to play with Tommy for a while when the shower was over. That was the end of Tommy as brother. She is now in love with him again. :-) She told me when we got home that Tommy is now her boyfriend and they are going to get married when they grow up. The really funny part about this whole thing is that Tommy is completely oblivious. He has no idea that marriage plans are being made and that this girl has already decided his future. Hmmm, that could be a problem...

So, this week so far has been totally about boys. The one Kaya will marry and the one she will grow up with. I can't wait to see how things turn out! (Oh wait, I take that back... I can wait... If you ever read this, Kaya, please wait... please...)

So...

I don't think we're going to find out if this baby is a boy or girl. Oh well... If I had to guess I'd say boy, but we'll see! At this point, the baby is so big and there's so little room that it's highly unlikely that he/she will be able to spread his/her legs for us. That's okay! Now we just need to pick a boy name...

Also, two of my wonderful friends from church, Kristina & Paige, are throwing a baby shower for this little one on August 3rd. If I've forgotten you (it's nothing personal, I promise - I'm just forgetful) and you'd like to come, please let me know! And, for their sanity's sake, if you have received an evite and haven't responded yet it would be wonderful if you could let them know if you'll be able to make it. Thank you!!!!

(See Paige - I told you I'd post... ) ;-)

Well, it might be a boy!

I went back to the doc today and he now thinks that it might be a boy. :-) The kid was covering certain "parts", so we (again) couldn't tell for sure. I'm going back in again next week, so hopefully we'll be able to get a better picture then!

On another note, if you could please pray for the baby and the pregnancy, it would be greatly appreciated. The baby is looking nice and healthy, but my body is doing some things that may make it necessary for him/her to come early. We would obviously like to avoid that, so your prayers would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!